Amicale

Description of the proposed exhibition

Drawings based on photos of anonymous people, most of them taken in Morocco or found in family albums, Ghizlène CHAJAI shares her investigations and her will to reclaim her own history, mixing imagination, emotion and exoticism. The colours and patterns of her “blurry stories” constitute memory filters reflecting ignorance and attempts to rebuild memories and invite us to think about our multitude of origins and the complexity of our identities. “I have had a small album of black and white photos of my family for some years. Most of them were taken in a studio in Morocco but some also in France. I do not know most the people that appear on them. I have tried to remember some of the family stories to ascertain if these people belonged to the paternal or maternal side of the family. I also look for similarities for make possible matches and the only clues at my disposal are dates, or less frequently, the names of places written on the back of those photos” says the artist. This investigative work would eventually lead her to cross different continents, countries and even cultures, and bring her to reclaim her own story using her imagination, firstly by producing large drawings of those photos, then adding colours to those black and white pictures. To portray her confusion and her ignorance and rebuild the bits and pieces of her memories, she uses transparent layers to darken parts of the initial drawings, giving them a new sense, a new interpretation, as if filtering the memories. By reinterpreting these family photos, Ghizlène CHAJAÏ questions the method of producing these existing or mental pictures, and more widely, she wonders about the concepts of collective memory, transmission, inheritance and identity. From the migration to another country, how can we take ownership of our history and which cultures actually define us? What can we learn from them? How do we choose to define ourselves? What elements are at our disposal to help us to do this?

Biography

Ghizlène CHAJAÏ was born in 1982. She lives and works in Strasbourg. A graduate of the « École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs” in Strasbourg in Art and Textiles, hybridisation is at the core of her artistic approach, especially through blending techniques (anatomical, physical and genetic), and mixing (cultural, social or genetic).

First of all, blending began through her limitless multidisciplinary practice of medium bringing together drawing, costume making, as well as staging photographic scenes. It is also expressed through the alternative use of folklore objects, re-using war regalia (gas masks made from objects from different era such as shields and epaulettes), the reference to diverse cultures or by borrowing using references to worship practices, rituals or religion like in her series “à nos corps défendant”. The aim here is to create confusion among the audience. Depriving things of meaning heightens our perception of mystery and makes us understand that we do not understand. There is also an idea of looking back at and within ourselves, a tool which encourages us to look at our private selves and our memory. The impression of  oddness and absurdity which is the result of the hybridisation of her works, asks the universal question of the mystery of origin. Albert Einstein said this, “I feel the strongest emotion when I think about the mystery of life. This feeling is the basis of the beautiful and the true and arouses art and science” (Albert EINSTEIN, How I see the world).

Techniques used

Mixed techniques and tracing paper

Format of the works

60x80cm (2) 50x70cm (1) and 40x50cm(3) (the artist can produce more drawings in a series, but more in 40x50 cm format), she can also do smaller runs (small or large format posters) for sale.